I can’t remember an issue in which there was so much intellectual dishonesty or malpractice in media reporting than the embryonic stem cell/cloning debates—and that’s saying a lot! For example, when the Stowers Crowd began using the junk biological term “early stem . . . . Continue Reading »
Laura Miller reviews Winifred Gallagher’s latest book onWait, what was it on again? Oh, yeah.our culture’s inability to concentrate and what we can do about it: You don’t have to agree that “we” are getting stupider, or that today’s youth are going to . . . . Continue Reading »
In the Canadian magazine Macleans , Mark Steyn reminds us that some slopes really are slippery : Whats my line on legalized polygamy? Oh, I pretty much said it all back in 2004, in a column for Ezra Levants Western Standard. Headline: Its Closer Than They Think. Well, . . . . Continue Reading »
In today’s daily article for the On the Square blog I review the good news and bad news about Israel on the 61st anniversary of its independence. I also offer an unashamed plug for one of my favorite publications in the world, the quarterly review Azure from whose next issue I . . . . Continue Reading »
Law professor Thaddeus Pope runs the Medical Futility Blog, the best such site dedicated to medical futility of which I am aware. He swings from the futilitarian side of the plate, but is always fair and even handed.Today he has posted “Seven Reasons For Supporting the Unilateral . . . . Continue Reading »
Some of our most formerly venerable medical journals are becoming increasingly radical. Critical Care Medicine, the journal for intensive care doctors, is a case in point. In the past, the Ethics Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine supported futile care theory, and quite notably, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Finally the pun sticks: Arlen Specter has jumped the shark . In his most self-serving and risible move since the Magic Bullet Theory, Specter will become a Democrat and run accordingly in 2010. Tautologically speaking, no party should want a Senator who no longer wants to be a party member, but it . . . . Continue Reading »
In a new article in the Boston Globe , Nathan Schneider examines a growing trend in the social sciencesthe study of irreligion: Religion can be good for more than the soul, a growing number of studies seem to say. Over the past decade, academic research on religiosity has exploded, and with . . . . Continue Reading »
First, if you haven’t already, be sure to read today’s “The Mental Murder of Torture,” by First Things associate editor Russell E. Saltzman: Now, Im not so dumb or so liberal that I cant understand and remember and share the anger the September 11 attack produced . . . . Continue Reading »